Summer Solstice 2023
Summary Geopolitical Update
As we pass another solstice here on our increasingly vexed planet, I note the following salient developments:
1) The empire's proxy war in Ukraine is a lost cause, and Russia will emerge from it exceedingly stronger than when it began.
Matters have reached the point where the imperial masters will be forced to choose between a humiliating disengagement and abandonment of Ukraine to its fate, or otherwise blunder into a calamitous direct military intervention.
In recent weeks, all of the most important voices in Russia have spoken boldly and unequivocally regarding their demands of the NATO bloc: it must withdraw its forces to their pre-1997 posture.
In other words, NATO presence in Ukraine must cease forthwith; Ukraine must be entirely demilitarized, and a neutral regime must be installed in whatever Ukrainian rump state the Russians choose to leave unrestored to mother Russia.
Additionally — and this demand has been explicitly stated — American missiles must immediately be removed from Poland and Romania, and NATO military presence in the other Russia-adjacent nations must be withdrawn in course of time.
Clearly, the Russians are emboldened by both their burgeoning military strength as well as NATO's manifest military debility.
This war has achieved precisely the opposite effect that was envisioned by its neocon authors: it has served to strengthen Russia, and also forged an unbeatable alliance between Russia, China, and Iran.
That said, I cannot shake the haunting worry that the #EmpireAtAllCosts cult may yet succeed in persuading the powers-that-be in the Pentagon to put to the test the myth of American military supremacy against what was so long imagined to be Russian military ineptitude.
I believe we will see the answer to that question between now and the next winter solstice in December.
2) Like its new allies in Russia and Iran, China has now declared in unmistakable terms that it will no longer abide by the arbitrary "rules-based international order".
They will no longer tolerate US meddling in Taiwan, nor permit the US to dictate the geopolitical relationships of the nations in east Asia and the western Pacific.
The days of a patient and grudgingly submissive China have come to an end.
In other words, as I have written on several occasions, we have well and truly arrived at an unprecedented hinge moment in world history.
The greatest empire the world has ever seen has long-since receded from its high-water mark and is now in rapid and increasingly chaotic decline.
"I have touched the highest point of all my greatness; And, from that full meridian of my glory, I haste now to my setting ..."
Great dangers lie ahead — some in the relatively immediate future; some not far over the horizon.
Prepare accordingly ...
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